For millennia, the historical church has read and studied the “last words” of Yeshua’s crucifixion during lent and in preparation for the Easter Holy week. But I think this tradition has a very special and unique value for Messianic Jews…
Author: Rabbi Paul
Eikev – What Are You Willing to Live for?
The Philosopher Socrates declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Sigmund Freud said the same in his own proprietary language, “Where id is, let ego be.” Most people only go through the motions daily, living out a pale imitation of…
Matot – A Place of Refuge
This week’s Torah portion contains a theme that in the ancient world was peculiar to the religion of Israel – the compassion, care and grace of their patron God. A historically popular approach to theology is to bifurcate of the…
Shelach Lecha – Monsters, Giants and Other Formidable Obstacles
In the spring of 2002 I went to an art exhibit that was featuring a grouping of pictures painted by a good friend who was beginning the process of leaving the safety of a career as a commercial artist and…
Haftarah Nasso – Leaders We Deserve
I certainly do not want to retell the story of Samson in detail. You know it. You’ve heard it before. You may have even seen or heard any number of dramatizations. Of course, there is the famous 1949 Cecille…
Bamidbar – Wildfire, Water and the Wilderness
Listen to an audio version This week we embarked upon our annual reading of Bamidbar. The fourth book of the Torah is so named since it begins “Vay’daber Adonai el-Mosheh b’midbar Sinai (And the LORD spoke to Moses in the…
Behar – It All Belongs to the Lord
From its outset Torah is the story of Israel and the Holy One whose name the nation would bear. From the very beginning of the history that is recorded in the Torah, humanity is called to bear collectively the image…
Does God Need a Press Secretary?
It seems to me that God could use a good press secretary. You know, like C.J. on the classic TV show West Wing. Though she is a semi-fictional creation of Hollywood, C.J. is the perfect prototype of the professional spin-doctors…
Passover Lambs and Chesed Community
Among messianic Jews much has been said concerning the parallels between the sacrifices of the paschal lamb and that of Yeshua. After all the paschal lamb was the Korban Pesach, the essential sacrifice which God commanded the children of Israel…
Shabbat HaChodesh – It’s About Time
Time is the most elusive yet dominant concept in the human experience. We struggle to understand it and we struggle to control it, yet our endless awareness and fear of time lurks behind all our endeavors. So, we invent devices…